There For Me
by EscapingGreatly
Summary: In 1936, the youth of Germany were forced to join the Hitler Youth. Yet 1 million resisted. Edward Cullen didn’t and realising the impact of his decision, he turns to best friend Bella Swan for comfort and hope. Written for The Age of Edward Contest


**Age of Edward Contest**

**Title:** There For Me

**Your pen name:** EscapingGreatly

**Type of Edward:** WWII Edward

**If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this contest visit: ****The Age of Edward C2 Community:  
****http://www(DOT)fanfiction(DOT)net/community/The_Age_of_Edward_Contest/70125/**

* * *

**There For Me**

**Summary: **In 1936, the youth of Germany were forced to join the Hitler Youth. Yet 1 million resisted. Edward Cullen didn't and realising the impact of his decision, he turns to best friend Bella Swan for comfort and hope. Written for The Age of Edward Contest

**A/N** Thanks to freakyhazeleyes for looking through some grammar and spelling. And thanks ElectrifyingChemistry for being amazing. You're brilliant and I love your brilliance.

_Side Note:_ Some people say that the Hitler Youth became compulsory in 1936, others say in 1939. Most of the sources say 1936 so I'm going with that.

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The quilt covering the bed moulded to my body as I lay sprawled out on my back, enjoying the feel of my best friend Bella's massage. My eyes closed and I longed to sleep, but, her voice kept me awake.

"You know you didn't have to do this Edward." She looked at me sadly, her brown eyes wide as her palms pressed and rubbed against my calf, easing the throbbing I felt.

"You know I did, Bella. You should have tried out for the League of German Girls. It's compulsory now." I inwardly sighed. We had had this argument too many times. Bella loathed anything to do with the Nazis, claiming that their restricting laws dampened her creative and free spirited nature. When a law was passed forbidding jazz music – a genre Bella specifically enjoyed – she had ranted and raved, pointing out all the flaws of the Nazis to me behind closed doors.

"And yet so many of us have refused to join." Her voice was laced with hidden anger and I cringed, not wanting to go into the inevitable discussion whilst my body ached and my mind felt like collapsing from exhaustion. "Look at Alice, Edward. She's still prancing around, listening to jazz and not giving a flying fuck about those ridiculous laws that are being passed."

I smirked at her language. Bella Swan would never be classified as your typical lady. She swore as much as I did, had spent her childhood playing war games with me hiding out in trees and despised the stereotypical image that the Nazi's were starting to enforce of the typical Aryan woman. Her brown hair and chocolate coloured eyes were a far cry from the image of the blonde haired, blue-eyed woman plastered onto posters. And yet, for me, it was Bella's hair and eyes in which I found true beauty.

"And sooner or later she's going to get caught. Why can't you just join, Bella? I don't want you joining any resistance groups – do you know what the Gestapo does?" What worried me about Bella was that she didn't understand the reality. She claimed that she wanted her rights to free speech, but she was oblivious to what would happen to her if she opposed in the long were often harassed and intimidated by the Gestapo who tried to bully them into joining. If the youths were ever caught breaking one of the laws they were taken away to the labour camps. If she understood, she would drop all of her protests and conform to society.

Her massaging stopped as she glared at me. Her brown eyes fired and narrowed with anger and her small hands curled into tiny fists. If I hadn't taught her how to fight I'd probably have laughed.

"I'm not going to lose my identity and become one of _them_." Although the signs of fury she was displaying had made her position clear, her hatred startled me. While she had always strongly railed against the National Socialists, she had never before expressed her distaste of everyone joining either one of the two youth groups quite so aggressively. It hurt, knowing that she was criticizing me just as much as everyone else.

"I'm one of them, Bella," I reminded her gently. She turned away from me so that I was unable to see her eyes. She had always done that whenever she was upset or annoyed. Her eyes were her most expressive feature and she knew it. Silence met my reminder and I leaned forward, so that my head rested on her shoulder, my arms moving around her waist and pulling her back into my chest. "I promise you, Bella – it's all just fun and games. Nothing serious. We go on hikes and camping trips and have athletic competitions. We're not training for war." I sighed. Everything between us would have been easier if I hadn't joined – if I had chosen to resist like a few other youths. But the choice of opposing the National Socialist German Workers Party was dangerous, not to mention the fact that I had people to please. My parents had both wanted me to join, telling me that they would be so proud of me if I did. My teachers at school had insisted upon it. But Bella had hated my decision and she still did. We were constantly battling – something new in our sixteen years of friendship. And it wasn't as if the subjects of our arguments would change from time to time. No. I was always trying to convince her to drop her protests, wanting to keep her safe and to protect her. She was being her normal stubborn self, refusing to budge.

Lying on my back, enjoying the feeling of her small hands working my rear, I thought back to where the whole trouble had started. I had been on probation for the Hitler Youth for a short while now, and throughout it we had fought. Yet I had known that no matter what my decision she would still stick with me. So when I had told her that I would be completing tests whereupon I would become a member of the Hitler Youth, she had simply given me a weak smile, diverted her eyes and told me she would meet me in my room in the evening.

The tests to get into the Hitler Youth had been vigorous and challenging. I had had to cover a distance of sixty meters in twelve seconds, jump two meters and seventy-five, throw a ball for over twenty-five meters and complete a cross-country march of one and a half days. By the end of it all I had been an aching mess and desperate to see Bella. However, I finally was a part of the Hitler Youth. I had the uniform - a brown shirt, black neckerchief, black trousers, and an armband with the lightning rune on it - to prove it. As soon as Bella had seen it, though, she had glared at me and had forced me to change. Acknowledging defeat, I had stripped out of the uniform as she had turned her back to me and started telling me about her past few days. Eventually in clothes that appeased her, I had walked over to her and asked if she could massage me whilst she talked. She blushed, glared and pushed me onto the bed all at once

**

So that was how we had ended up on her bed, lying in silence until she disrupted it. "You don't tell anyone about our conversations, do you?" I opened one eye, as I looked at the girl in my arms. We were lying on my bed, me on my back whilst she rested her head on my chest, her arm around my waist. My arm was draped around her as I pulled her close to my body.

"What?"

"You don't blab to your Hitler Youth friends that I hate the whole concept, that I despise the ideas of the Nazis and that I should pretty much be locked up, do you?" Her words were light but I could sense the worry beneath them. I shot up at her words, accidentally throwing her off of me. She let out an indignant huff as she sat up again. Glaring at her, I tried to breathe in deeply to control my anger. What the hell?

"Bella, do you honestly think that I would betray _you_ – my best friend – like that? Do you really think so little of me?"

It hurt to think that Bella had so little trust in me. Our whole lives we'd been together – our mothers used to be best friends until Renee, her mother, had unexpectedly died when Bella had only been 8 years old. The sixteen years of our lives had been spent with each other and to think that she even had to ask, displaying that she didn't trust me completely, hurt. Immensely so. I would trust her with my life and up to now I had always thought that she did the same. Of course I knew that it was a lot she was confiding in me, for a lot of her getting away with it unharmed depended on whether I told others about her opinions. But she _knew _me. I would never!

Bella saw the pain on my face and crawled over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her body against mine, as she apologized. I tried to pay attention, but the moment I could feel her all I could think of was that her body was so soft, so warm and so pressed up against my own. Heat suddenly shot through my body, leaving my nerves tingling. What was that? Surely it couldn't be because of Bella… we had done this for sixteen years, her cuddling up to me and vice versa. So why was I reacting this way? She pulled away before I had long to dwell on that thought and I let it fade away.

**

"So – is she as good as she looks?" I glared at the pathetic excuse of a man standing in front of me. Mike Newton, blonde, fishy-eyed and kind of greasy. A group of us were walking home from a Hitler Youth meeting when he asked me the question. I knew immediately who he was talking about. Bella. How dared he? How dared he to bring her up, much less ask such questions?

"Shut your mouth Newton before I fucking shove my fist in it." I seethed as I listened to his derogatory comments he made about _my_ best friend. He and another boy, Eric Yorkie, laughed and I clenched my fist in order to stop myself from lashing out at them.

Over the months my relationship with Bella had slowly been changing. I'd started to find myself…_reacting_ when she was around me, especially when she pressed her body against mine as we relaxed on my bed. We had always been touchy-feely with each other, ever since we were little. But lately something between us had been changing. I just didn't know what it was and with everything going on in the Hitler Youth I hadn't had much time to figure it out..

Mike, however, didn't show any signs of ceasing. "What's the matter Cullen? She that bad a lay that you can't brag about it?" The wild feeling of fury surging through my body began taking control. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then thought '_fuck it_' and swung my fist, relishing in the feeling of breaking Mike Newton's nose.

**

Walking into my house, I smiled as I smelt the food my mother had cooked. Entering the kitchen, I leant over the counter to kiss her on the cheek before trying to pick at one of the small pieces of chicken sitting in the pan.

"Edward, wait till dinner!" My hand was slapped away as mother lightly pushed my shoulder to move out of her kitchen. "Bella and Charlie are coming over for dinner tonight." My face brightened at the news and I dashed up the stairs to shower and change.

I stepped into the shower, letting the cold water hit me and sighed in relief. We'd been forced to undergo athletic training for an upcoming event – and my body was killing. Drying myself off, I wrapped one towel around my waist and used the other to dry my hair as I walked into my room. Expecting nothing out of the ordinary, I was startled when suddenly there was a sharp intake and a timid, yet somehow husky voice: "Shit, sorry."

My head shot up and I nearly dropped the towel as I saw Bella sitting on my bed, her face bright red as she stared at me. I noticed her eyes on my bare chest and instinctively puffed out my chest and stood up extra tall. Then I felt stupid for doing so. This was my best friend, not some girl I should feel the need to impress for.

"Uh – you're here early."

"Yeah – dad wanted to see if he could get his hands on some pre-dinner food." She laughed nervously and continued to peek at me from under her eyelashes. I smirked as I saw her attempt to look away, but her eyes remained fixed on me. I walked over to where I had previously laid out my clothes and shrugged on my t-shirt, inwardly rejoicing at the fact that I obviously weren't too hard on her eyes at all. I glanced at Bella and noticed that she had decided to turn around and allow me to get dressed. Although I regretted her being able to do so, I was kind of glad. Only God knew what I would have done if she had kept starring. I pulled on my boxers underneath my towel before unravelling it from my body.

But a part of me couldn't help itself. I wanted to see her blush again. I loved watching her cheeks fill with the familiar red colour, so I threw my towel at her and asked if she could put it in the laundry basket besides my window. She turned around startled and with her face red, moved towards the window as I pulled on my trousers.

"You ready to go downstairs?" Her voice was lower and quieter than normal. I closed my eyes before opening them up again, shaking away the thoughts that had been filling my head recently as I held my hand out to her and led her towards the kitchen.

**

The meetings at the Hitler Youth were starting to get more uncomfortable. At first it was fine, we did athletics and played games, keeping us active. It was even fun as we met up with other youths our age and played sports. But lately, things had been starting to change. We'd sit in the meetings, having to read through 'Mein Kampf', listening to the ideas of the Nazi party and hearing speeches about what was expected of us. The meetings were no longer fun.

Boys around me started to complain about the sheer boredom that the meetings had turned into and even my friends there were no different. Slowly but surely I had to admit that Bella's ideas from the very beginning hadn't been too far off the beaten track. When I told her what was happening, she told me that they were trying to indoctrinate us. _"They're trying to brainwash you Edward! Why else would they make you all read Hitler's book?"_ A part of me worried she was right

**

Cold horror pierced through me, as I saw my fellow friends torment the lone Jew. He had been peacefully walking along the streets, his fingers clenching around his coat as he kept it wrapped around him, protecting him from the wind, when my friends had pounced. They snickered as they saw the 'Star of David' on his armband and jostled one another as they laughed. Shouting curses and taunts at him, they followed as he tried to hurry along, his head down. But they refused to give up, instead picking up a few stones from the path and hurling them at him, shrieking with laughter as the ragged stones hit him and bounced back onto the floor. My mind blurred and my eyelids fluttered, as I tried to regain focus. This wasn't what was meant to happen. I had joined the Hitler Youth to hang out with my friends. To have some fun in our pathetic lives. To take part in sports. To please my parents and my teachers. Not to torment innocent people. Never to torment innocents people.

Obviously I had stood there, starring in terror, for too long. "Edward, what the fuck is wrong with you, man?" Jasper asked, his brow furrowed, as he took in my expression. My eyes stared at his perfect blonde hair, his blue eyes – everything about him described Hitler's perfect Aryan. And it made me sick.

"I- I need to…" my voice trailed off as I questioned what I really needed to do. My stomach churned, seeing the old man get up off the floor only to be kicked back down again. Curses and shouts screamed from my friends, their laughing and jeering echoing around me, pulling me out of my trance.

I turned around immediately ignoring Jasper's calls behind me. I ran faster than I had ever run as I longed to get out of there. As I longed to be with the one person who could help me make sense of it all.

_Bella_

My thighs started to burn as I pushed faster and harder, sprinting along the streets of Berlin, until my eyes fell upon her house. I stormed up the steps and flung the door open, carrying on through the house, until I stopped outside her bedroom door. I breathed deeply, closing my eyes for a second before ripping them open and twisting the door open.

"Edward?" She lay there on her bed, a white nightgown covering her, a book in one hand. My body froze. No matter how disturbed I might be, the beauty would never be lost on me. I'd never seen her looking so innocent and yet so..._sexy_. She sat up, placing the book on her bedside table, blushing as she saw me staring at her body. I forgot about the reasons why I'd come to her. I forgot about the Jewish man who had been ridiculed by my friends. I forgot about my fears and my questions.

But I remembered everything else. I remembered the times where Bella would gaze at me from under her eyelashes. I remembered how she would blush when my hand moved along her bare arms. I remembered how she would smile at me. I remembered how she would close her eyes and relax when I would hug her.

And before I could over think or analyze what I was doing, I strode over to her bed and sat on it, facing opposite her. I watched her for about a few seconds,as she stared at me curiously before I reached over to her, and moved my head to the right as I placed my hands on her neck and felt her lips against my own. She froze for a couple of seconds and then I felt her hands move around my shoulders and onto my neck, her fingers threading through the hairs there. She moved her body so she was closer to me, her nightgown hitching up her bare legs as she placed a leg on either side of my body, straddling me. And I officially was in heaven.

My hands roamed across her back, my index finger tracing along her spine, my other hand resting on her hip. I opened my mouth, my tongue flicking at her bottom lip, eager to taste her, remembering the brief taste I had had when we had been 15 and experimenting. She opened her mouth immediately and my tongue ran across her teeth before lightly touching the tip of her tongue. She broke away from the kiss panting, her eyes wide with shock and I looked down blushing, afraid I had overstepped the boundaries.

Still, I couldn't bear to take my eyes off of her for longer than a few seconds, not after the most amazing kiss I had ever had in my life. Her brown eyes connected with mine before I saw them drop to my lips. Lust clouded her eyes and I watched fascinated as her tongue darted out of her mouth, swiping against her bottom lip – the same lip my tongue had touched just seconds ago.

"Bella?" I whispered. Her eyes quickly snapped to mine and a slow grin broke out on her face. She looked down again and, as her gaze fell on her body straddling mine, she blushed, her face heating up in the familiar way I had seen since she was born. I tugged on her chin, forcing her to look at me. I needed her. I had known all along that she would always be a part of my life – I had just never realized how big a part I wanted her to play.

"Edward." Her whispering of my name caused me to close my eyes and drop my forehead to her neck. Her hands automatically came to my head, her fingers tangling in my messy hair, massaging my scalp. "Edward, what happened?" Of course she knew something had happened. She always knew when something had happened.

"I never realized – Bella. I never realized how_ cruel_ some people are. They did nothing, absolutely nothing wrong and they were ridiculed." I raised my head to look up at her. She knew exactly what I was talking about – she was the one who had pointed it out countless of times, but I had foolishly chosen to ignore her.

"Oh Edward-" Her voice broke as she understood my pain. That was how it was with us. How it always had been. When one of us was hurt or in pain the other would suffer along. We were so close, having lived our lives intertwined.

"I need you Bella. As soon as I saw what was happening, I knew that only you would understand. Bella, I walked in here and –_fuck-_" I closed my eyes trying to think about what I wanted to say. How I wanted to tell her. "I don't see you as a friend Bella. I haven't for a long time." Her eyes widened as she realized what I was saying but I forced myself to continue. "I didn't know what I was feeling, so I pushed it aside. But with everything-" I frowned to myself. I wasn't doing a good job of explaining myself. "I walked in here and I just…_knew_ that I needed you as more than a friend. I just-"

Before I could carry on making an ass out of myself, Bells pushed her lips against mine, her body pressing against my own. Her arms tightened around my neck as she crushed herself against me offering me the comfort, hope and love that she knew I craved. I moaned softly as I felt her breasts push softly against my chest and ran my hands up along her legs, pushing the flimsy material of her nightgown away. I pulled her hips closer to me and lightly pushed against her. She fell back onto the bed and I moved on top of her, my hands running up along her sides. She wrapped her legs around my waist and pulled me towards her with them. I pulled my lips from hers, gasping before attaching them to her neck. Sucking on the skin there and groaning, when I felt her hands fist in my hair, tugging on it.

"Edward, Edward." I listened to her as she whispered my name over and over again and I smiled, breaking away from her skin to sit up, pulling her with me. She rose onto her knees and I tugged at the hem of her nightgown, slowly moving it further over her body. I wanted her, I wanted to do this with her, but I wasn't going to do anything she wasn't okay with. And so I watched her carefully, looking for an indication to stop, but she just blushed and tentatively smiled, reaching for the buttons on my shirt. Her hands shook as she popped each button, working her way downwards before opening the shirt up and slipping her hands inside.

The warmth of her palms on my chest surprised me and I groaned, yanking her nightgown over her chest and head with a new urgency. My eyes fell on her chest covered in a modest white bra. My breath got caught in my throat as I looked at perfection. She was stunning. Definitely the most beautiful creature I had ever laid my eyes on.

"Edward…" I looked up at her and saw her face was burning red. I was making her uncomfortable with my staring, so I leant forward to brush my lips against hers as I removed my arms from the sleeves of my shirt. Bella pulled me immediately to her body, her hands roaming along my bare back as our chests touched. My fingers toyed with the clasp of her bra as I tried to get it off. It wasn't working. I brought my other hand around and tried to pull the damn thing apart, but I couldn't figure it out. My face grew hot from embarrassment as Bella broke away from our kiss, chucking softly as she reached behind her to undo the clasp. She let the bra remain in place and I looked at her, silently asking for permission before removing the straps from her arms, my eyes never leaving hers. Once it was off, I threw it onto the bed, but refused to look down, suddenly nervous.

And as always, Bella knew exactly what was wrong. Softly guiding me, her voice reassured me to do what I had wanted for so long. "It's okay Edward. You can look." My eyes shot towards her chest and widened as I took her in. As I reached a hand up to touch her right breast, my finger gently toying with her nipple, she moaned and arched into my hand, her eyes closing as she brought her hands up to fist into my hair. I gently squeezed before lowering my mouth down and taking her between my lips, my tongue flicking at her. The moan leaving her mouth was a clear indication that she liked it and I did it again, wanting to hear her sexy sound over and over again. This time she arched her back and brushed against my lower regions, eliciting a low growl from my throat.

I laid her back onto the bed and lifted her hips, so that I could remove the panties that she was wearing. A small wet patch had formed on them and I grew harder as I thought of her being ready for me. Before I could pull them off, Bella pushed at my shoulders, so that I leant back and started to unbuckle the belt of my trousers, sliding it out of the hoops and flinging it somewhere in the room before working on the button and zipper. She moved so quickly I sat there in shock, allowing her to undress me.

"I've waited for you for so long Edward – you're kind of teasing me with how slow you're going." Bella sighed as she pushed the button through the hole of my trousers. She'd waited for me?

"For how long?" My curiosity got the better of me and I groaned as I realized that only I could sit there with a half naked girl trying to take off my pants and ask her how long she'd waited for me. _No wonder the boys made fun of me so often_.

But she wasn't laughing."I don't know – a while. It just slowly changed from being friends to well…" I cut her off with a kiss. I knew exactly what she was trying to say. As our tongues playfully touched and explored each others mouths, we stripped each other of our remaining clothes and moved, until I was hovering over her. I broke away from our kiss to move my lips along her neck before looking up.

"It's going to hurt Bella."I spoke, regret filling my voice at the thought of me putting her in pain.

"I know." Her soft acknowledging was the end of the words between us.

She clung to my neck as I kissed her, slowly moving forward. I felt the slight tearing of her barrier and she winced, a tear falling from her eye as her fingernails dug into my back. "I'm sorry." I kissed away the tear, peppering her face with feather-light kisses and touches. "Don't be."

The urge to move was overwhelming, but I stayed still, waiting until she had adjusted and told me she was fine. When she wriggled her hips slightly after a while I moaned and started to pull out of her slowly before pushing back in. Her heat engulfing me was one of the best feelings I had ever experienced and I had to hold onto myself to keep me from moving faster.

We carried on moving together, slow thrusts as I tried to hold on for as long as I could. Half way through Bella looked up at me and I could see in her face that the pain wasn't as bad anymore as when I had first entered her. She smiled and my first thought was that I wanted to stay this way for as long as possible. Buried deep inside of her as she smiled up at me with trust and happiness.

"I love you." I whispered in her ear, as I came down to nip at her earlobe. For so long I had known that something had shifted in our relationship, yet I had had no idea what it was. Now it was even clearer than the sun, shining directly in my face. Her face brightened and her eyes shone with tears as she whispered back those three precious words.

And as I groaned my release, emptying inside of her, she clung to me, holding me close in her comfort, warmth and love.

**

Bella's breath blew across my chest and I resisted the urge to laugh as it tickled my bare skin. Her head rested on my chest, her arm wrapped around my waist as her body pressed against the side of my own. The thin sheet on her bed covered us and as I saw Bella shiver I pressed her body closer to my own, trying to keep her warm.

Bella settled and I ran a hand through my hair as I fought with my mind, trying to come up with a solution. I honestly didn't know what to do. I couldn't possibly be expected to carry on with the Hitler Youth, watching as they tormented Jews. I understood Bella's fear, for it had turned into my own now. But what could I do? I couldn't leave. I couldn't run away with Bella.

My hands traced patterns on Bella's shoulder as I tried to come up with a plan. Something had to be done. But I was at a loss.

"What's got you worrying, Edward?" Her soft voice startled me and I looked down to see her brown eyes open, as she sleepily looked up at me.

"Go back to sleep, love, just thinking, that's all." I reassured her, but frowned when I saw her sit up, her warmth surrounding me disappearing as she pulled herself into a seated position, the sheet clutched between her fingers as she protected her modesty. I rolled my eyes at her, silently laughing as I realised that even though I'd seen, touched and licked all of her, she would still blush and get shy.

"I know you're worried, Edward. I know you're debating what to do." Her hand on my thigh was meant to be reassuring, but even though it was, I still felt that arousal flow through me.

I turned my head to face her and saw the hesitant smile. I smiled back. Bella had always wanted to help me. And I had always refused. Now I would ask and actually listen to her.

"What should I do?"

"You could leave-"

"No, I can't. It's too dangerous. They'd wonder why and they'll come knocking down the doors, demanding reasons." I groaned, my head banging onto the wall as it flopped back in frustration.

"Well, there's nothing you can do if you insist on staying apart of the Hitler Youth, Edward. Yeah, they may be curious as to why you've left. But there are plenty of youths who don't go to Hitler's youth indoctrination groups." Her argument was convincing. "But Edward – it's up to you. Just know that - whatever you choose - I'll be there for you. I'm always there for you."

I turned to Bella and knew she was right. Leaning over to her, I reached my hands out to cup her face as I pressed my lips softly against her own. Whatever decision I made, I knew, Bella Swan would always be there to support me.


End file.
